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This book starts from the question: did skepticism only arise in the Hellenistic era? It is argued that skepticism was in the air even earlier in the classical period — not in the form of a well-defined school of thought or position, but in the form of certain loosely-related ideas and arguments. Some of these were articulated by Protagoras in his book Alêtheia ‘Truth’, which began with the striking claim that ‘Man is the measure of all things, of what is that it is, of what is not that it is not.’ Protagoras’ claim posed a challenge to the ideals of expert knowledge, truth, and to the...

This book starts from the question: did skepticism only arise in the Hellenistic era? It is argued that skepticism was in the air even earlier in the classical period — not in the form of a well-defined school of thought or position, but in the form of certain loosely-related ideas and arguments. Some of these were articulated by Protagoras in his book Alêtheia ‘Truth’, which began with the striking claim that ‘Man is the measure of all things, of what is that it is, of what is not that it is not.’ Protagoras’ claim posed a challenge to the ideals of expert knowledge, truth, and to the privileged role of reason in discovering the truth. Plato, Aristotle, and Democritus responded to this challenge in their work.